I believe that your correct about the Wii, but it's a one off. My real point is that these things are find to think of as toys, but unless sell-through is in the 10s of millions I wouldn't think about it too much.

I believe that your correct about the Wii, but it's a one off. My real point is that these things are find to think of as toys, but unless sell-through is in the 10s of millions I wouldn't think about it too much.

It only needs luck, just like any other success story in history.

Maybe 1 game (minecraft port, etc) will draw enough attention to it, for it to gain momentum.

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Agreed. Some killer games at launch is all it needs. Stroke of flawed genius basing it on Android (though hopefully Jellybean, not ICS) because that means there are already a ton of games available for it at launch but for one small problem - it's designed for touch, and consoles are all about controllers. So not one single existing Android game will be any good on it. However Android is pretty easy to code for so making games for it is going to be easy.

They will easily be able to sell this machine at a profit as the hardware is now commodity priced but if I were them I'd skin the Android experience and have it all routed to some specific app store which they take a cut from. Developers won't be making any money though because like all formats before it that used the "open" model (eg. 8bit, 16bit, PC) it will be rife with piracy amongst the target market (pre-teens, teens, and generally people with bugger all money, or people who have a general dislike for paying for software).

My take is let someone else take the risk and create that game/app or whatever. Many things might/could happen...who knows...next year linux might break the 2% desktop barrier. Like I said earlier...I wouldn't take any of these hardware devices seriously until they break 10m sell-through barrier. Until then it might be a fun toy, but not much more.

This will only run one game at a time, and a larger percentage of those won't be huge titles. The Xbox 360 only has half. I know it's old, but it sure does for even titles like Skyrim and even Minecraft.I doubt we'll ever run short soon.

My biggest worry is if I'll get to beat Angry Birds on there. I already beat it on my iTouch, phone, tablet, computer, television and microwave.

At that price point, and with the prices of games expected to be around $0 ... $2, it's probably going to be pretty successful. If they can aim it at casual gamers and kids. The price is particularly attractive to parents (says me, being a parent).

At that price point, and with the prices of games expected to be around $0 ... $2, it's probably going to be pretty successful. If they can aim it at casual gamers and kids. The price is particularly attractive to parents (says me, being a parent).

We're handing the reins over to the developer with only one condition: at least some gameplay has to be free... Developers can offer a free demo with a full-game upgrade, in-game items or powers, or ask you to subscribe.

I've actually paid into it and I'm getting one in march (if all goes well).I think it's a great idea to create a open dedicated games platform with a similar business model as the appstore or google play, and I'm looking forward to just experimenting with it.

But besides a succesfull kickstart, it will need some serious investment for some proper marketing and distribution to brick-and-mortar shops if it intends to compete with the likes of Sony/MS/Nintendo.And a few good games at launch of course.

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it's designed for touch, and consoles are all about controllers.

True, but Android already has support for controllers for some time, and a number of games already support physical buttons and such (for example games designed for Xperia Play).

I'm not so sure nowadays. Times are changing (ahem), the Raspberry Pi doesn't have any physical stores and that didn't seem to hold them back, so it might very well be that todays target audience couldn't care less about reallife 'customer care'.

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I'm not so sure nowadays. Times are changing (ahem), the Raspberry Pi doesn't have any physical stores and that didn't seem to hold them back, so it might very well be that todays target audience couldn't care less about reallife 'customer care'.

But the Raspberry Pi is an extremely small niche and not nearly on the same scale as the PS3s and Xbox360s of this world.If you want to reach a broad audience, your product needs to be seen, which needs huge marketing budgets. And ideally brick-and-mortar shops for driving sales during christmas etc (when most consoles are sold).

That's likely to change as Amazon gradually dominates in that area. Though whether Amazon will be keen on a competing Android sales platform is another matter.

Cas

Why would they not allow it? They sell hundreds (this might actually be a realistic figure) of android devices. Their own Kindle Fire has a limited market as well, and they even sell the Nook which is competing Kindle.

I haven't put any money down (and I won't either) but I am not so skeptical... It is fundamentally an android device using an off the rack chipset fron nvidia. They are not innovating on the hardware or the software. They need to design the plastic box it all fits in, the logo, the joysticks (whatever!) but they seem to be doing their best to avoid doing rocket science. Yes they need to set up a marketplace with some controls, but that again has been done 100 times before.

Calling it a scam sound pretty libellous to me...

The price tag looks impossibly low I do agree - just a plain beagleboard costs more than that. Either it is a low introductory price, or they will recoup their losses in their game marketplace.

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